Tokyo in(di)visible hypothesizes to make current the perceptions of space as defined under opposing terms of interior/exterior and precise/uncontrollable. Through a networked field of architectural prototypes, an exterior space can be created and defined as a function of the evolving environmental conditions in which it is situated, removing undesirable airborne particles as a by-product of the enhancement of exterior qualities.

Every year in the University of Tokyo’s Digital Fabrication Lab (DFL), digital fabrication technologies are used to produce an experimental pavilion project. The aim, rather than being simply to achieve automation or precision through use of such technologies, is to explore the potentials for human and machine collaboration. Past projects have focused on fusions between humans and machines through the use of 3D printers: the 2014 STIK Pavilion explored this theme through guided aggregation, and the 2015 TOCA Pavilion by using humans as a parameter along with an oversized 3D pen.

This year, in the Computational Clay Pavilion, we advance the role of the human in construction one step further, examining how an individual’s capabilities and performance can be expressed in an architectural output. We have developed a unique panelized construction system wherein the movements of humans and their relationship to the material are explored.

Every year in the University of Tokyo’s Digital Fabrication Lab (DFL), digital fabrication technologies are used to produce an experimental pavilion project. The aim, rather than being simply to achieve automation or precision through use of such technologies, is to explore the potentials for human and machine collaboration. Past projects have focused on fusions between humans and machines through the use of 3D printers: the 2014 STIK Pavilion explored this theme through guided aggregation, and the 2015 TOCA Pavilion by using humans as a parameter along with an oversized 3D pen.

This year, in the Computational Clay Pavilion, we advance the role of the human in construction one step further, examining how an individual’s capabilities and performance can be expressed in an architectural output. We have developed a unique panelized construction system wherein the movements of humans and their relationship to the material are explored.

Professor Marcos Novak is the founding director of the transLAB at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is affiliated with the AlloSphere and CNSI (the California NanoSystems Institute).

He is a researcher, artist, theorist, and transarchitect. In 2000, he represented Greece at the Venice Biennale, where his works have been exhibited several more times since. His projects have also appeared in prominent museums, galleries, and collections in many countries. He serves on the scientific committees and advisory boards of several international journals and conferences.

His projects, theoretical essays, and interviews have been translated into over twenty languages, have appeared in over 70 countries, and have, and have become the topics of conferences and symposia. He lectures, teachers, and exhibits worldwide.

Lecture: This Building Likes Me
Speaker: John Wardle
November 15, 2016 (Tuesday)
18:30-20:00

John Wardle, one of Australia’s leading architects, explores the ways buildings weave together landscape, history, memory, and materials.
John Wardle Architects (JWA) has gained a reputation for creating buildings that connect to their surroundings in subtle yet powerful ways. The work ranges across scales: from small-scale domestic dwellings, to large commercial projects and major university buildings, most recently, Melbourne’s Conservatorium of Music. Collaboration is ingrained in the those of the Melbourne-based office, a spirit that extends to working closely with builders and craftsmen in the realization of their projects. Materiality and intense detail are constant interests, both for their aesthetic and experiential qualities and for the values they embody, as Wardle writes: “The care shown in how materials are employed, tells a story about the value that a community places in its built environment.”

This lecture coincides with the launch of This Building Likes Me – John Wardle Architects, published by Thames Hudson

Princeton University School of Architecture hosted a joint workshop in New York with visitors from the University of Tokyo between October 28 and November 6. The workshop is part of a strategic partnership program between Princeton and UTokyo, and was initiated by Princeton Professor Jesse Reiser and University of Tokyo Associate Professor Yusuke Obuchi. The aim of the workshop is to create opportunities to exchange architectural knowledge between cultures and universities.

The first workshop in this initiative was held in 2016 in Tokyo. Participants had the chance to meet and engage in discussions with master Japanese architects such as Fumihiko Maki, Arata Isozaki, and Hiroshi Hara. The October workshop represented the US-hosted portion of the partnership, and the content focused on Steven Holl, Bernard Tschumi, and Thom Mayne. Five students from the University of Tokyo participated (two PhD, one master, and two undergraduate). Each student received seminal essays written by each focus architect, and then had an opportunity to discuss them in a preparatory seminar before visiting the architects’ offices and conducting interviews. Students also visited buildings in New York and Princeton designed by the architects.

Course instructors Kengo Kuma and Yusuke Obuchi have invited other leading Japanese architects to participate. Materials are delivered in Japanese with English subtitles.
Framed between the two Tokyo Olympics of 1964 and 2020, this series will explore and reflect on the diversity of contemporary Japanese architecture by focusing on four facets: theory, technology, city, and humans. Through lectures by instructors and discussions with some of the most influential Japanese architects, the course will trace the development of contemporary Japanese architecture and will consider its future direction.

This course has been made available via edX, a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) provider established in 2012 by partner university MIT. Registration is free and is open worldwide (official course completion certificates available for a fee). This course is presented in Japanese with English subtitles.

We’ve made a new place in the Department of Architecture at the University of Tokyo. It’s called T_ADS, and with it, we hope to help reconnect the architectural community, which split during the twentieth century.

First, we saw a split between people who design things and people who make things. Designers only thought about creating nice aesthetics; people who made things only thought about money and how to make things easily. Even among people making things, there were divisions; structural engineers, people making interior spaces, etc. Everyone was concerned with their own interests and their own profits. The human element was forgotten.

Designers were divided too. Form designers, structural designers, surveyors; everyone aimed to optimize within their own fields of knowledge, and turned a blind eye to the bigger picture. Outside of architecture, the community environment was even more forgotten.

Reconnecting these fragments is the aim of T_ADS. We use computers as the “glue” to achieve this. Our hope is not only to make the world of architecture unified, but to also make architecture and landscaping, architecture and cities, and architecture and the earth unified.

If we can do that, T_ADS will not even need to belong to the Department of Architecture, and perhaps may not even need to be located in Tokyo. In fact, a variety of people all around the world are already a part of T_ADS. The aim of this exhibition is to share the spirit and the reality of what this new kind of “place” feels like. – Kengo Kuma